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    Home language competences

Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils

Why and how to assess home languages of students with a migrant background

Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils

This page will be available in English soon. Please refer to the pages in French.

RECOLANG provides a set of values, principles and criteria for the assessment of home languages. These are based on a series of examples of existing assessment practices that have been used with migrant learners in secondary education. The overall aim is to support the social and institutional recognition of home languages and to enhance learners’ plurilingual repertoires.

Introduction

The RECOLANG (Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant learners) website aims to rethink language assessment, particularly the assessment of those languages for which there are few (or no) assessment resources, and which are not seen as part of national education systems.

Except in the case of languages of schooling or the languages which form part of the curriculum, the assessment of competences in the languages used by learners on a daily basis is not self-evident. Depending on their situation in relation to the education system (learners arriving and entering a new education system, bi- and plurilingual learners who have been in a given education system for less or more than three years, etc.), and depending on the purpose of the assessment (diagnostic, formative, for certification), learners’ strengths and difficulties are not taken into account in the same way.

From the moment they enter the education system and throughout their school career, assessing the home language competences of migrant learners requires appropriate support and methods.

These assessment methods focus on learners' language repertoires, which should evolve and which learners can continue to build on. The aim is that learners, the teaching team and the school should be fully aware of the language resources that are available to help each learner to learn, grow and feel at ease in their academic and/or future professional careers.

The decision to assess and take account of home language competences forms part of a collective effort to make education more equitable at school level, in the immediate environment or in the wider region/state.

The "Why assess?" section Includes statements from learners.

The "What assessment principles?" section explores the principles and criteria underpinning a culture of assessment that needs to be developed collaboratively.

The "Whose competences to assess, and how?" section identifies the target groups and provides benchmarks to help us better understand learners’ needs and assess the competences required in relation to specific situations and objectives.

The "When and how to assesssection contains assessment methods and materials gathered from different contexts and regions in Europe.

Finally, the "How to get involved?" section suggests ways in which you can get involved, whatever your role  (learner, family member, teacher/education staff, decision-maker in education).

  • Raison d'être et principes de l'évaluation formative des langues familiales.
  • Carte mentale indiquant les différents types d'apprenant·e·s.
  • Exemples de supports d'évaluation.

  • The resources on this site provide food for thought and inspiration for assessing learners’ competences in all the home languages spoken in Europe. The site does not offer "ready-made recipes" but a collection of resources based on assessment methods and materials used in different contexts. Whether you are a teacher, a teacher trainer, a headteacher, a parent or a learner, these resources are there to be shared, discussed, experimented with, adapted, etc.  The aim is to help change perceptions of the place of learners’ languages and language repertoires in learning and their school careers, and to move towards methods of assessment which are tailored to these groups and their learning pathways..



    www.ecml.at/homelanguagecompetences

    ID: 2
    Name: Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils
    Shortcut: www.ecml.at/homelanguagecompetences
    FlyerUrl:
    Type: FREN
    Year: 2023
    Authors: Isabelle AUDRAS, Carole-Anne DESCHOUX, Ildikó LORINCZ, Joana DUARTE, Ana Sofia UNKART
    En: True
    Fr: False
    De: False

    Resources

    rationale and principles for formative assessment of learners’ home languages
    different types of learners, their educational contexts and assessment scenarios
    examples of assessment approaches and materials

    Target groups

    • language teachers
    • individuals and institutions involved in the assessment of language competences
    • decision-makers in language education

    Project team

    Isabelle AUDRAS
    Coordinator
    France

    Carole-Anne DESCHOUX
    Switzerland
    Ildikó LORINCZ
    Hungary
    Joana DUARTE
    Netherlands
    Ana Sofia UNKART
    Germany

    Supported by:  Françoise LECLAIRE (France), Filomena MARTINS (Portugal) et Shahrzad SAIF (Canada).

     Key references 

    Glossary

    View glossary

    These are the results from a project of the European Centre for Modern Languages within its "Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences" programme 2020-2023.